Baby Bells Explore Jointly Buying Time

Three regional Bell phone companies are exploring the possibility of jointly buying time from long-distance providers, hoping to get a better deal because of their combined size.

BellSouth Corp., Pacific Telesis Group and SBC Communications Inc., said Thursday they have not decided to actually buy time jointly. The companies plan to enter the long-distance market by reselling the time they buy.

The request for rates from companies like AT&T, MCI and others is a step to determine whether it is valuable for them to do so. It will take several weeks for bids to be made and the companies to consider them.